Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The web economy has not only transformed businesses around the world, it has also created new challenges and great opportunities for certified public accountants.

Online Challenges For The Accounting & Financial Services Profession

Now, more than ever, certified public accountants must work hard to stand out from the crowd, source new clients, and keep their current business. Not only do you have to maintain an active presence in the communities and industries you serve, you must also develop a strong digital presence. This includes having a dynamic website and figuring out smarter ways to market your business services online.

As well as spending money marketing offline, you will probably find that in order to compete, you will need to invest a bigger part of your budget to develop and maintain a website that drives prospective clients, engages visitors, outranks the competition in search engines and social media, and helps to increase your reach online.

This means that your website not only has to look great, your pages have to be fast-loading, and your website layout has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, your site’s needs will change in time and many aspects will need to be updated frequently. This requires a well-planned web and content management strategy.

Another difficult challenge that accountants face with their websites (as all other professions do for that matter), is that your site has only about thirty seconds to help visitors find what they need or they will go away.

“Websites have evolved into central information hubs where service information is still present but enhanced with web portals, hyperlinks to state and federal sites, and a variety of free tools.”

Michael Alter, http://www.accountingweb.com/technology/accounting-software/tips-for-improving-your-website

Opportunities For The Accounting Profession In The Web Economy

As well as facing significant business and technology changes, there are also many online opportunities available for accounting businesses that are willing to evolve to meet digital economy demands and think outside the box about improving their online business marketing skills.

This guide will help you uncover a number of ways to drive more web traffic and improve your accounting and financial business presence online.

As well as providing practical tips and information on ways to improve your business online, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress content management system to power your accounting or financial services business website or blog.

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System, go here:

• Learn Why A Poorly Constructed Web Site Can Cost You Customers And What To Do About It
• An Online Guide To Building A Successful Business Using A WordPress Blog

Tips To Improve Your Accounting Or Financial Services Website

This section looks at how to improve your website and get better results online. We show you what pages your website needs, what content works best for accounting and financial services sites, ways of improving layout and navigation, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, read this article: How To Plan A Web Site: A Useful Guide For Business Owners

Ways To Improve Your Website Pages

All business websites require a number of basic web pages. Let’s take a look at these.

Products And Services Description Page

You need to include a page that describes your products or services.

It will include all the services and products you offer, such as:

• Business accounting – planning, company formation, accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, book keeping, budgeting, financing, forecasting, strategic planning, consulting services, etc.
• Taxation – preparing, planning, reviewing, auditing, advising, problem resolution
• Investment strategies
• Corporate finance
• Wealth creation
• Superannuation/retirement plan (401k) advice
• Audit risk assessment and assurance
• Quickbooks – setup, training, tune up, and support
• Specialist services – mergers, acquisitions, information technology, secretarial, rentals, trusts, fiduciary accounting, succession planning, selling a business, asset transfers, etc.
• Lending and leasing

Make sure to list all of the services you provide. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about the benefits of using your services and why they should book an appointment.

About Us

This page should give a description of your business and what it stands for, its unique approach, community contributions, etc.

It’s important to include any industry awards, recognitions, certifications, accreditations, associations, publications, etc., that could be used to promote your company and set it above other competitors.

(List all of your industry awards certifications, accreditations, recognitions, associations, publications, etc. in your About Us page. Image sourced from: deloitte.com)

Meet The Team

If you are looking for simple ideas to sell more products online or get people to stay longer on your site, then make it easier for your prospective clients to get to know your business better.

You want prospects to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your employees. It should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors will not tend to be that well-versed in accounting terms it should tell who they are and what their specialties are. It should also explain what those specialties mean. This page should even include social buttons so your visitors can follow some of your staff members on their social pages.

On this page, don’t be afraid to humanize your people with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to outline each staff member’s expertise, how their skills and knowledge add value or contribute to the success of your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add a page that introduces your employees to prospective new clients. Image source: deepsky.com)

For a detailed tutorial about how to easily add an easy-to-manage simple team members directory in your site without coding skills, go here: How To Add A Simple Staff Directory On Your WordPress Site Without Editing Code

Recruitment

This is a listing of career opportunities within the company. It could include training, benefits, advancement opportunities, etc. You should also include information about new career opportunities in the accounting and financial services industry.

Maintain a positions available section in this page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to this page, join your contact list, follow your social pages, etc.

Case Studies & Testimonials

Case studies and client reviews are a great way to show prospective clients businesses minimise tax, increase profitability, or grow strategically. By adding a page with client reviews and case studies, you are also helping to provide visitors social proof.

(Add a page with case studies and reviews from clients. Screenshot image source: pcg-services.com)

If you want to learn more about using case studies, testimonials and reviews, see this article: How To Improve Your Conversions Using Captivating Testimonials

Contact Us Page

Having a contact page is crucial.

Your contact page should provide visitors with the following:

• Business Name
• Your address
• Phone number
• Fax
• Email
• Map and directions
• Web address
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Social media web addresses
• Interactive chat feature (optional feature)

If your business services multiple areas you will want to make that clear when displaying your address and contact information.

Consider also including a few links for commonly-asked questions, useful pages, special offers, helpdesk, newsletter, blog, etc.

Blog

A blog can be a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs are built around a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to promote your business using timely content like industry events, company updates, training articles and tutorials, informative posts, promotional videos, infographics, etc.

If you already have an established accounting or financial services website, then consider adding a WordPress blog to promote your firm.

If you don’t have a website yet, or your existing site is hard to keep updated or not delivering you the results you want, then WordPress can become both your website and blog.

Very few businesses know that WordPress can turn your web presence into an automated traffic-generation system that can help begin driving web traffic to your website, simply by publishing regular content to your web site.

(An expertly configured WordPress site can automate your traffic generation)

If you would like to learn more about this here: Web Site Traffic Blueprint – A Complete Guide To Attracting More Website Visitors For Your Business Automatically

Legal Information

It’s very important to have a website that complies will all legal requirements online, not just for building trust and credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that no local, regional and federal laws and regulations are being breached in whichever location you provide services to.

Adding the following legal pages to your accounting or financial services site will help keep you out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential sources of threats and legal inconveniences:

• Contact Page
• Privacy Statement
• Terms And Conditions Of Use
• Website Disclaimer
• Affiliate Agreement
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• DMCA Notice
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Links Policy
• Financial/Health Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• etc.

We have written a comprehensive article on adding legal pages to your site. To learn more about this go here: Why You Need To Add Legal Pages To Your Website

Ways To Improve The Content On Your Site

In today’s globally competitive economy, the sooner you begin engaging in the practice of content marketing, the quicker you will begin to differentiate yourself from the competition.

By committing to providing great content with advice and tips, you will get your readers to share your web pages online with others and come back for more information. Content marketing is a great way to educate your visitors and prospective clients about your business.

For example, topics for an accounting or financial services business could cover:

• Explanations of balance sheets
• Understanding profit & loss statements
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• How to present accounts for fundraising activities
• Cashflow planning tips
• Business insurance
• Risk prevention
• How to structure your self-managed retirement fund
• Things to look for when … (e.g. purchasing vs leasing, setting up payroll systems, etc.)

You can also create a series of educational articles that will help your readers gain a better understanding of your accounting services, such as forensic accounting, small business accounting, tax planning for small business, reducing business debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.

Remember to use relevant keywords in your content that your readers would search for.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with actionable information and practical tips that will show you how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to your visitors and grow your business online using content. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!

Ways To Improve Visitor Engagement And User Experience

Improving your website’s user experience (typically referred to as UX) helps keep visitors coming back and engaging with your site. This section will show you different ways to improve visitor engagement and UX.

Syndicating Content With RSS Feeds

Adding RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve visitor engagement and UX in many ways.

If you provide useful content, other businesses will want to syndicate your content.

Some of the benefits of syndicating your content to other sites using RSS feeds, include:

• All of your updates are kept in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Your feeds can be shared online
• RSS feeds allow users to subscribe
• A feed provides links back to your content
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• RSS provides a number of ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. subscribers can view your content on their mobile device using different applications)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also benefits to adding syndicated content to your site from other websites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.

You can find RSS feeds with useful content for your website by searching online for relevant government departments and well-known industry bodies.

Below we have listed a few RSS feeds you may want to add to your accounting site:

• Taxation Policy Center: http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/press/rss.cfm
• Australian Taxation Office: https://www.ato.gov.au/RSS-news-feeds.aspx
• Canada Revenue Agency: http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/rssfeeds/
• UK HM Revenue and Customs: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/rss/rss.htm
• South Africa Revenue Service: http://www.sars.gov.za/Pages/RSS-Feeds.aspx

(RSS feeds can help to improve your site’s user experience.)

Provide Online Checklists & Forms

Adding checklists and forms to your site is a great way to increase user engagement, add value to your readers and provide something unique. Forms and checklists can provide users with step-by-step instructions and resources to complete tasks. Checklists and forms are also great planning tools.

You can provide a range of online or downloadable forms and checklists (or links to these) covering subjects such as:

• How To Set Up A Company
• Rental Property Worksheet
• Not-For-Profit Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Checklists
• Individual Tax Checklist
• Trust Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Other Tools

Providing unique tools and applications for businesses on your website is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add significant value to your target audience. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are useful tools for accounting websites. Others would include time cards, and retirement and interest calculators.

In part 2, we take a look at a number of online tools you can use in your website using WordPress plugins and themes that can help improve seo, increase user engagement and generate more web traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section 1 of this guide on ways to grow your accounting business online.

Click on this link to continue:

• Tips For Accountants – How To Improve SEO, Improve User Engagement And Drive More Visitors With Plugins & Themes

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